Hazel and local police hold press conference on school safety – LaGrange Daily News

Troup County Schools Superintendent Dr. Rachel Hazel called a joint press conference with local law enforcement at LaGrange High School Wednesday evening to address this week's shooting threats at the school.

On Monday afternoon, a post circulated on social media threatening to release a list of schools in Troup County. While the investigation into the threat is ongoing, a 15-year-old youth was arrested. The child, a local student, has been charged with 11 counts of making terroristic threats.

“Last week in Barrow County, our worst fears came true… Since last week, our own school family has been affected by four separate threats of violence against our schools,” Hazel said.

She continued: “Everyone [threat] Police responded and investigated the cases and three of those four cases were resolved within an hour. The fourth threat is still under investigation but it has been determined it is safe to resume normal school operations,” Hazel said.

Hazel took the stage with representatives from the Troup County Sheriff's Office and the LaGrange, West Point and Hogansville police departments to discuss the incident and answer questions from the audience. The press conference preceded the TCSS town hall meeting led by Hazel.

“This [threats] “There are rumors circulating all over the country… we take this very, very seriously. We are not dismissing this as a joke or a rumor,” said Stewart Smith, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Boss Garrett Fiveash of the LaGrange Police Department said that in order to thoroughly investigate any threat, one must scour social media to find the original author. For this reason, he advised the public, especially children, not to repost, comment on, and engage with these posts. By sending the posts directly to police departments, the time it takes to follow up on these leads is reduced. Fiveash added that citizens can anonymously submit information to the police department through the Tip411 app.

As for the credibility of the threats, Fiveash said the first three threats were quickly investigated and found to be not credible. He said if they felt there was a danger or if an investigation took too long, law enforcement would contact schools to lock them down.

Hazel also encouraged parents to use School Status, the main online platform TCSS uses to communicate with parents. Some parents in the audience asked what to do if there is a lockdown or a school shooting at their child's school.

Hazel responded that if the school is closed, children should be taken home while they are out, but if there is no curfew, they can come to school as normal. Police asked parents not to come to school during a curfew so that their resources can be focused on the school. Everyone on stage reiterated that communication would be done as soon as possible through platforms such as School Status, email or social media.

The superintendent spoke about some of the security measures currently in place, including metal detectors in high schools, a check-in system in elementary schools, the “expectation that exterior and interior doors are locked at all times,” and school resource officers who regularly check that doors are locked.

Employees are issued CENTEGIX badges. These are used to notify administrators, SROs and law enforcement of the exact location of emergency incidents. The same badges were used during the Winder shooting.said Hazel, which allowed the SROs to begin searching immediately.

Several speakers on stage on Wednesday urged parents and community members to speak up if they notice anything suspicious or disturbing.

A member of the crowd asked if the school system was considering arming staff. Hazel replied, “No, that's what we use our School Resource Officers for.”

Sheriff James Woodruff added that arming personnel makes their jobs more difficult in an emergency. He said that in situations like school shootings, it is more difficult to identify the threat when more armed people are present.

Woodruff added that children need to understand the seriousness of these threats.

“The situation is very serious,” he said. “I think they will only realise this once they are in custody… By the time we come and arrest them and realise how serious the charges are, it will be too late.”

Fiveash reiterated this and called on parents to “ [their kids’] Business” and see what’s on their phones and what they’re looking at on social media.

With the increasing number of school shootings and threats across the country, school systems have had to adapt.

Zac Steele explained that Georgia law requires every school to develop a safety plan, and local law enforcement must sign off on that plan before it is submitted to the state.

Andrew Calhoun, TCSS security director, said the system will release more information on security soon and will continue to evaluate additional security measures for campuses.

“These are not conversations we want to have with our kids, and they are not conversations we want to have with each other, but they are very necessary conversations,” Hazel said. “Please help us by having open conversations with your child about the seriousness of posting online or spreading rumors about violence in schools.”